Improvement in railroad-switches



3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

C H WHITE RAILROAD-SWITCH. No. 180,685.

.Patented Aug.1, 1875.

3 Sheets-Sheet-B.

C. H. WHITE.-- RAILROAD-SWITCH.

Patented Aug. 1, .1876."

MFETERS. PHOTO-LITHOGRP-HER. WABHINGT'M, ILC.

UNITED STATES PATENT EEICEO CHARLES H. WHITE, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILROAD-SWITCHES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 180,685, dated August 1, 1876; application lili d Y January 28, 1876.

To all whom It may concer/n.7

Be it known that I, CHARLES H. WHITE,

of Detroit, in the county ot' VV-ayne and' State.

of Michigan, have invented an Improvement in Railway-Switches, ot which the following is a specification:

My invention relates to an improvementin that class of switches wherein the train can pass from the main line to the siding and from the latter tothe main line without crossing, running over, or shifting the mainline rails; and it consists in the construction and arrangement of the several parts composingI the switch, all as more fully hereinafter explained.

Figure 1, Sheet 1, is a plan oi' the switch, showing the guide-rails set for the main line. Fig. 2 is a cross-section at x a'. Fig. 3, Sheet 2, is a plan of the switch, showing the guide-- rails set to switch a train from the main line going in the direction of the arrow a onto the side track, while a train on the main line going in the direction ofthe arrow b would pass the switch and keep on the man1-line rails. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section at y y in the same figure. Fig. 5, Sheet 3, is a perspectiveview of the shifting guide-rails and their connections. Fig. 6 isa perspective View of my improved frog-bed. Fig. 7 is a similar view In the drawing, A A represent two bars of T-rail, permanently secured to the cross-ties o. The former is straight and forms a portion ofthe main line, while the latter is bent at a very small angle from a right line, and forms part ofthe siding in that part which is not parallel with the rail A, the remainder forming part of the main line. B is a cast'- iron frog-bed, itted at the outer edge to the Vneck ofthe rail A. It is firmly secured to side track, while the frog-point C forms a part fiange, f, at the edge next the frog-point, lead'- ing to a groove, g, for the anges of the wheels of the trains to run into, which grooves run out at the edge of the guide-rail at some distance from the point of the frog. The sills o are laid on the ties to raise the guide-rails to the plane of' the top of the frog-plates. E is the switch-rod passing through a slot in the neck of the rail A', and slots iu the frog-plates.

Each guide-rail is connected therewith by a lateral plate, h, by a pivot-bolt through its end, the 'connections being' secured by a keeper-plate, t', overlapping their ends, and intermediately bolted to the switch-rod, which may be moved by a crank or other gear.

When the guide-rails are set for the main line, as seen in Fig. 1, trains running thereon will keep it. If a train be standing on the side track it can be run off onto the main line without shifting theguide-rails, the anges of the wheels on the side next the rail A runing up the sloped end of the guide-rail, and along its top until they drop oli' the outside edge thereof, as soon as they become tangent thereto. The groove gin each guide-rail need not necessarily be formed in the top thereof, for the lianges of the Wheels running over it will sooncut or wear a depression by abrasion.

It' the switch be set as seen in Fig. 3, and

a train becoming down the main line from A the direction ofthe arrow b, the flanges ofthe wheels nextv the side track will keep inside the frog-point B, and run up and onto the guide-rail D set against it until they drop oflc between the latter and the rail-A', by which time the treads of the wheels .will have a full bearing upon the latter.

Thus it will be seen that at all times the flanges of the wheels'are inside the main-line rails in running over the switch, and thus no accident can ooeur, no matter which Way the switch be set.

What I claim as my invention is 1. In arailWay-switeh the combination of the stationary rails A A', the latter forming a part of the siding, the stationar7 frog-beds B B', having the tapered dovetail grooves d, the stationary frog-points U C', having the dovetail flanges e embedded in the said frogbeds, and the movable guidelrails D D, allconstructed, arranged, and operating substantially as described and shown. 

